


She's Dying

by raysinbran



Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, Gambling, Kinda?, purgatory type thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 14:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20472254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raysinbran/pseuds/raysinbran
Summary: Mallory gambles a little with Death. It works out.





	She's Dying

Mallory’s first thought when waking up in a strange, gray room was _ What the fuck happened _. 

She didn’t remember how she got there or why. She sat up slowly, surveying the room, brushing her hand over the floor, the same color of gray as the walls and ceiling. It wasn’t cold, or warm, or anything really. It barely felt like she was sitting on anything, or that she was really there. 

It sort of felt like a dream. 

The room didn’t really have anything in it. She stood up and made a point to walk around, touching all the walls (they _ sank in _ at her touch), trying to figure out what she was doing here. Mallory had been poking at one of the walls, mildly fascinated, when a voice behind her spoke up. 

“Ah- you’re a little young to be here, aren’t you?” 

The young woman whipped around, back pressing against the gray wall. A table and two chairs had somehow appeared and in one of them sat a man in a black suit. 

The man’s lips twisted into a frown when he had elicited no response from Mallory. He sighed, taking a sip from his cup. “I’m sorry, I scared you, didn’t I?” 

Mallory’s eyebrows drew together in confusion, staring at the man. “... where am I?” she asked, slowly.

“Oh, currently in the back of an ambulance,” the man said breezily, head cocking to the side as he stared at something beyond Mallory. “A friend is with you? I assume he’s your friend.”

“That’s Jules,” she mumbled, then spoke louder. “I kind of meant this place?”

“Purgatory.” He shrugged. “I suppose that’s what it would be to you? There’s not really a name for this place, technically it’s just _ nothing _. A place for people to wait until…”

The man trailed off and Mallory found herself speaking, the words tumbling out. “Until what?”

He looks at her, pityingly. “Until they die, Mallory.”

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Vaguely, she became frighteningly aware of how little she could feel her heartbeat at this moment when it should be pounding. Her fingers were numb and barely feeling instead of the ice-cold they tended to be. She touched her arms, her face, her neck, making sure they were there and _ they were _ but it wasn’t the same, she was- 

Well. Mallory was dying. 

“I don’t want to die,” she finally choked out, eyes wide. 

“I know.” The man nodded. “From what I can see, if it’s any consolation, it’s very possible the ambulance will get you to the hospital in time and save you. At the same time…”

“What?”

“... Mallory, why don’t you sit down?”

She bit the inside of her cheek - she couldn’t feel that either - as she slowly sat in the wooden chair across from the man. 

“Mallory,” the man began, “I’m very sorry, but, there is a chance that you’ll still die on the way to, or in, the hospital. It’s very high and… well, you’ll be here until then, I don’t know for sure, but. I wouldn’t personally get my hopes up. I’m sorry.”

Mallory frowned, looking down at the table. She wanted cry but just, couldn’t. “Is this it? Am I just going to sit here until I die with some guy in a suit?”

“I- well, I suppose, unfortunately. There’s another option, but,” he shifted uncomfortably, “I’m not sure it’d succeed, for you anyway.”

Her head snapped up. “Tell me, please.”

“We play a game,” the man said simply. “Any game you want, board games, a contest, whatever. If you win, I can allow your life to persist until you get can get enough help. The game can end prematurely if, in the living world, the natural order of events dictated that you live anyway. But, if I win… well, I get your soul no matter what.”

“I want to do it,” Mallory said immediately. “I don’t care what game it is, you pick. I don’t care.” 

He looked uncomfortable again. “I suppose we can just play a bit of poker… are you sure about this? If you lose, you will die.”

“I know.” Mallory nodded, tapping her fingers impatiently. A thought suddenly struck her. “Hey, what’s your name?”

The man, pulling a deck of cards out of practically nowhere, looked surprised. “I- oh- um. Hmm.”

She made a face at him. “What?”

“I don’t usually get asked my name,” he explains. “I don’t really have one.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “For real?”

“I- had one at some point, and I suppose it’s still my name, but I have no reason to use it.”

“Tell me, please? Also, are you like the grim reaper?”

The reaper shrugs. “Something like that.”

He pauses. 

“My name is Orion.”

____________________________________________

The game was going great. 

And by that, it was going awful. Mallory could really, _ really _, tell. She didn’t even know how to play poker, she had never played before. She knew some terms, knew enough to know she was doing okay so far but she was going to lose. 

They were in the last round. Mallory took a deep breath, showing her hand. 

“Straight flush, my dude,” she smiled, nervous. She didn’t know how to play, not really. She wasn’t even sure that was the right term, but she was too anxious to care. 

Orion leaned forward, studying her cards. 

“I- don’t, don’t tell me your cards are better. Don’t tell me that, I’m begging you.”

She tried to keep her tone light-hearted and joking, but her voice cracked on the last word as she and Orion made eye contact. His expression was unreadable - a poker face if you would. 

“Mallory, I’m sorry.”

She swallowed down the lump in her throat. She didn’t want to cry. “I know.”

“It was very nice talking to you.”

“Yeah. You too.”

Orion waited a moment longer, hesitating when he suddenly sat up, back ramrod straight. His face was still blank, though his eyes widened just slightly. Then, a smile crept onto his face.

“Well, I think you got- saved by the bell?” He remarked. “Is that a modern phrase? I believe it is.”

Mallory’s mouth fell open. “I- I won’t die?”

“No, not today.” He shakes his head. 

“That’s- shit, Orion! That’s great!” She leans her head back, laughing. “Man. I guess you’ll get to take me some other day?”

“About fifty years.” he smiled, inclining his head. 

“You gonna miss me?” she said, jokingly. “Even though we’ve been in here for only a little while-”

“I don’t have much in the way of emotions, Mallory.”

“You’ve been smiling along with me, though.”

“I do it as a form of habit.” He looked apologetic, though now Mallory noticed how his eyes remain blank and emotionless, as they have been. “People who are dead or dying are often in hysterics; you’re the calmest one I’ve had in a long time. It calms them more for me to seem more, well, _ alive _.”

She frowned. “That… kinda sucks? I wouldn’t want to live without any emotions, myself you know.”

“I’m used to it.” He paused. “You should be waking up soon. It’ll be the next day.” 

Mallory ignored that last statement. “Aren’t you sad?”

Orion seemed to be at a loss for that one. “Hm. I do not know.”

“I think you should be.”

“I know. Mallory, you will be waking up soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, you said that. I’ll see you around?”

“Fifty years.”

She shrugged. “Probably. Am I going to get murdered?”

He gave her a look. “I can’t disclose that information.”

“That’s lame,” she scoffed.

“You wouldn’t remember regardless, but,” he stood,” it’s still classified. See you, Mallory. I think I may feel sad.”

And then Mallory woke up to blinding lights and a blurry, white ceiling of a hospital.

**Author's Note:**

> dont @ me this is based kinda of a TAZ balance fic that I CANT FIND AGAIN and shit


End file.
